A 5-metre mural appears on the facade of a house restored after shelling in Mykolaiv

In Mykolaiv, a new mural with sunflowers has appeared on the facade of one of the renovated buildings.

The mural was created by Mykolaiv artists Valeriia Kucher and Dmytro Voloshyn, who were interviewed by NikVesti.

According to Valeriia Kucher, the idea of the sunflowers came about spontaneously, but later it took on a special meaning. After the shelling, sunflowers grew in the very spot where the damage was done — the residents showed the artists a photo. That's when they decided to make this flower the main image of the mural.

«It turned out that for this house and for the people, the sunflower became a symbol of life, awakening and faith that everything is being restored,» the artist said.

A sunflower that grew at the site of damage after the shelling of the house. Photo: _nikvesti

The artists are working on the mural together. They started on Monday and spent the first 5 days painting in the morning, working on a cradle on the 5th floor. It was Valeriia's first experience of working at such a height.

«I'm not afraid of heights, but when you stand on a tower for 3-4 hours, which moves slightly due to the wind, the sensations in your legs are very unusual. But it was interesting,» she says.

The artists added grass, applied coats of arms, and planned to add bees to the mural.

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The artists do not rule out working on similar projects in the future. According to them, UNOPS is implementing a large-scale programme to restore damaged buildings in Mykolaiv, which includes about 49 properties.

Residents and passers-by, the authors say, are reacting very positively.

«99.9% of the feedback is «very cool» and «we like». People came up, took pictures, looked at them, asked questions. It's very inspiring,» says Valeriia Kucher.

Both artists have considerable experience in creating murals. Valeriia Kucher started working with murals about 10 years ago, including a bus stop near the zoo, and recently, together with Dmytro, she participated in the creation of a portrait of Ozzy Osbourne. Dmytro Voloshyn has been creating murals since 2015, and in 2024, together with his team, he created eight murals in Mykolaiv as part of the «Museum on the City Walls programme».

«It wasn't easy to work here — the height, the tower, the month of December. But all safety precautions were followed, and we did everything very quickly. We are proud of ourselves,» summed up Dmytro Voloshyn.

As a reminder, two colourful murals by French artists JoFo and Charles appeared in Mykolaiv near the purified water distribution point on the territory of the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivelectrotrans».